


got your back

by carolinaa



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Attempted Sexual Assault, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Lup Kicks Ass, Protective Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 10:04:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14566659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolinaa/pseuds/carolinaa
Summary: No matter how well things had been going before, it's over now, with Taako crying in front of her. If anyone in a caravan treats Lup or Taako badly, they pack up and leave. Them's the rules.





	got your back

There's only a lapse of a minute and a half between when Lup hears Taako crying and when she finishes getting their things packed, thrown back into their bags and by the entrance to their wagon.

Then, she's rushing to her twin’s side. He's huddled under their wagon, tucked away behind one of the wheels, his clothes sort of rumpled and his entire appearance in an uncharacteristic state of disarray--hair falling out of its braid, makeup smeared all to hell. Lup crawls underneath the wagon to sit next to him and smooths his hair out of his face to find a darkening bruise over his eye, which is still brimming with tears. It's clearly the result of a fist, not one of Taako’s dumb sweet flip accidents.

But Taako has noticed she's there now, and is looking up at her with his mouth set in a very determined, hard line to force himself to stop making noise. Not wasting any more time, Lup yanks him into a hug, and he dissolves into silent sobs with his face pressed to her shoulder.

Lup doesn't need to ask who did it or _what_ they did--it doesn't matter, they're leaving immediately. Taako doesn't cry like this, especially not outside, where someone could see him, and she suspects the injury went past just the physical blow. He usually takes hits without fanfare, leaving Lup to discover fading bruises days later. But having evidence of both emotional and physical injury means no matter how well things had seemed to be going with this caravan, it's over now.

That's the rule. If anyone in a caravan treats Lup or Taako badly, they pack up and leave.

“I packed for you, babe, you just need to go get your bag, okay?”

Taako sniffles, clearly trying his best to stifle further crying as he takes a few breaths and pulls away. “No, it's okay, we're staying. You still need to get with Gloria, and we need to get paid.”

“I was just gonna loot them while you got ready to go.” She keeps running her hand over Taako’s hair, because there's not much else she can do to help him right now. Now that he's calming down, he's not going to let her hug him again--she knows better than to try, as she's the exact same way. “And Gloria, while she is _super_ hot, isn't as important as you.”

Taako snorts through his tears and flicks Lup’s shoulder. “Nerd.”

It's dark already, and the campfire is starting to burn across camp. It's only a matter of time before someone comes looking for one of them to cook dinner, and Lup isn't cooking for any of these people again, and she's definitely not letting Taako near whoever hurt him.

“Go pack, bubbeleh.” She gives him a small shove in the direction of their sleeping quarters, then crawls back out from under the wagon and gets to her feet. “We don't have much time before sundown.”

Lup runs for Rourke’s wagon. He's the leader of the group of mercenaries they're accompanying, and he's still in the town nearest them to shop for supplies--meaning Lup has complete freedom to climb in through the window and poke around for any loot she can carry.

Rourke is an okay guy, but Lup doesn't feel bad at all.

When she returns to where she'd left Taako, he's disappeared, presumably inside the trailer, but there's someone else there. It's one of the kinda scary guys that's usually with Rourke (Hidel, maybe?), and he's starting to open the door to their wagon with difficulty, like Taako is inside, leaning his entire body weight against it. Lup tosses the bags of gold she'd found underneath the wagon where they won't be seen, then says sharply, “What are you doing?”

Hidel stops, and the door slams shut, a thud following as if Taako had fallen down with the sudden lack of resistance. “He. Uh.” Hidel is scrambling for a story, and Lup is struck with the realization that Hidel must have been the one who had hurt Taako. “He took something of mine.”

Lup narrows her eyes. “Yeah? What was it?”

She doesn't let him answer, and just fires Magic Missile from her fingers, blasting him off of the steps and freeing the way for Lup to dash up and knock twice. “Taako, let me in,” she says urgently.

The door opens immediately, and for the first split-second she sees him, he doesn't look good at all, fresh tears streaking his mascara further and panic making his chest heave. But he schools his expression, puts Lup’s bag and wand into her arms, and swings his own over his shoulder. “Let's g-get the _fuck_ out of here.”

“Hell yeah!” She leaps from the top step, snatching the gold from where she'd stashed it and shoving it into her bag. It should be enough to get by for a month or so.

Taako’s gone already, darting away from the clearing and into the trees, and Lup starts to go after him, but then a huge, beefy hand clamps down on her arm and yanks her back. She throws her heel down onto the bridge of Hidel’s foot, then elbows him in the groin when his grip weakens, tearing herself out of his grip.

They've managed to cause something of a commotion, and Lup can see several people approaching that will definitely take Hidel’s side. And she sees Gloria, the half-elf woman who Lup was _so_ close to seducing, looking both confused and alarmed.

Lup casts a spell to put up a temporary wall of fire between herself and them, and then sprints away, not giving anyone a chance to catch her again.

She catches up to Taako fairly quickly, because his breath is hitching and he keeps stumbling over roots and stones. It's unlike Taako to be this clumsy, but she waits until she's pretty sure they aren't being followed to stop running and announce that they're taking a break.

Taako slumps down on the roots of a fallen tree to begin to clean himself up. Lup catches her breath while she watches him wipe his eyes, put his hair up in a bun, straighten out his clothes, and slowly stop wheezing from exertion. Even in the almost complete darkness, she can see him putting on a steely front, and she knows her window to ask questions is closing.

“What did he do to you?”

Taako’s hands still, then begin to tremble. His voice is light when he answers, as if it’s nothing of consequence, but his hands betray him. “He's going through a bit of a, ah, a _dry_ _spell_ , poor thing.”

Lup feels sick to her stomach. “Did he…”

“Oh, please,” Taako waves his hand, but it's a jerky and unnatural motion. “I have _standards_. And he's just forty. I don't get with anyone younger than sixty-five.”

She elects not to remind him about the difference between human and elven ages, because it won't help to remind Taako that the two of them are hardly the equivalent of a human sixteen-year-old. Taako is frazzled and not in the state of mind for arguing about how all that works, but. “I'm gonna kill him.”

“No need, Lulu.” When Taako can't even look Lup in the eye to protest, she knows he's lying. She _knows_ something happened, but Taako would rather take it to the grave than tell her. “I got him with a Fiery Ray before he could do anything, no problem. It's just part of the gig when you look as good as this.”

This has happened before, to both of them, and some of those times have been worse than others, but that doesn't mean it doesn't affect them anymore. That doesn't mean that this isn't going to make Taako jumpy and nervous and scared for a little while, until the memory fades enough for it to be set aside.

That doesn't mean Lup isn't _pissed_.

“We're gonna stop at the next library and learn some more defensive magic,” she decides. “This won't happen to us again.”

Taako shrugs. “Sounds like a plan, Stan. We should get moving again, we're only a mile or so away from them.”

He gets to his feet, but his legs are unsteady and he almost tumbles to the ground. Regaining his balance, he looks embarrassed and upset, and Lup clears her throat. “Let's just chill here, actually.”

Seeming kind of suspicious that she's just babying him, Taako opens his mouth to protest, but Lup has already thrown her pack on the ground for the night. “This shit’s heavy, and I've got an illusory spell to keep us hidden.”

She knows Taako wouldn't want her to know that he's relieved, but his shoulders relax and some of the stress on his face dissipates. “If you say so. We coulda at least stayed the night in an _actual bed_.”

“Not a chance, buckaroo. We're living in the wild now. Wild boys. No home boys.”

“Neither of us are boys, you fuck.” But Taako is almost smiling, which is a definite improvement. “If you think I'm gonna rough it out here any longer than I have to, you've got a magic missile coming your way.”

Lup grins back. Later, when she's trying to figure out how to conjure a tent, she hears a very quiet “thanks, goofus” from Taako, and that's more than enough for her.


End file.
